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Record mess – Metro US

Record mess

City crews have a record-breaking mess on their hands, after Mother Nature ripped trees from the ground, and rained down debris over Edmonton in Saturday’s storm of the summer.

“It’s a big mess,” said City of Edmonton principal of forestry Jenny Wheeler. “There’s been lots of devastation with trees knocked down, on cemeteries, golf courses, people’s houses and vehicles — it’s all bad.”

By the end of the weekend, city crews had responded to nearly 250 calls from residents affected by flying debris. Yesterday, the number of calls more than doubled to 700.

The last comparable storm on record was in 1997, though damage was mainly wrought from snapped tree branches. Weekend weather uprooted entire trees, causing significant upset throughout the city.

Roxanne and her two small children fell victim to the powerful storm, after a tree crashed into the roof of their west-end townhouse and forced the family from their home in the middle of the night.

“It looked like it was going to fall,” she said. “Then it just came crashing down on the house.”

The family was put up in a hotel by the Canadian Red Cross, and are returning home today.

“We had nowhere to go,” she said. “They were very accommodating and quick to help us.”

Wheeler predicts months of cleanup ahead for city crews. She added trees belonging to the city are the city’s responsibility to clean up, and privately owned trees are a homeowner’s responsibility.

She added crews will recycle wood from felled trees by chopping it to mulch for city-owned parkland.